A technical meeting entitled “Official FMD country status: advantages for North African countries” was held on September 23 – 24, at the OIE Sub-Regional Representative for North Africa, in Tunis.
About 15 people attended the meeting including OIE Delegates and Head of Veterinary Services of Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. The importance of the efforts undertaken by the Arab Maghreb Union’s countries (AMU) for foot and mouth disease (FMD) prevention and control was mentioned several times.
The Delegate of the attending countries expressed their willing in obtaining an official disease status for FMD, as recognised by OIE, and acknowledged the importance of implementing the following measures:
Since its establishment in 2009, the OIE Sub-Regional Representative for North Africa has among its objectives the aim to support countries of the region that wish to obtain an official status for FMD.
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia took this opportunity to agree for a common goal such as to present three dossiers to apply for the FMD-free official status with or without vaccination by the end of 2011.
